Street With No Name
Year: 1948
Grade: B
Country: USA
Director: Keighley
Reviewfalls into the docu-noir genre of call northside 777 and he walked by night. though not as good as either, it’s a pretty good flick overall. mark stevens plays an undercover fbi agent sent to find out who’s behind the murder of two recent victims. in order to do this he goes through the same motions as the latest victim, hoping that this will give him some key clue. his backup man is ably played by john mcintire (far country, psycho, elmer gantry, tin star, asphalt jungle, winchester ’73, call northside 777). stevens does a serviceable job with the lead, but the real star (as it often is when he’s present) is richard widmark, who plays the crime boss stevens turns out to be pursuing. there’s plenty of on location shooting and authentic technology in the mix to give the feel of a docu-drama. at the same time there’s enough low-lighting (not to be confused with natural lighting) to retain the noir feel. the ending, of course, reaffirms the noir rules – those who do bad pay and those who fight it live to continue the fight. in this respect the film went a bit further than i would have liked. i love noir and they always end with the bad guys dying or getting caught, but the best ones make it a tragedy (killing) rather than a morality tale (this film).